Planning Commission approves Pacifica Estates

The county's Planning Commission approved the proposed Pacifica Estates development.

The Planning Commission's 7-0 vote April 22 approved a conditioned tentative map for the 17.30-acre property which will be accessed from South Mission Road north of Stage Coach Lane. The Planning Commission has the authority to approve a tentative map in the absence of a rezone or general plan amendment, although a tentative map decision may be appealed to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and nearby residents are considering that appeal option.

"It's not perfect if you live next to it," said Planning Commissioner Peder Norby. "But I think we've done good and I want to be consistent on the standard."

The property has Rural Residential zoning and a VR-2 Village Residential land use designation; both of those allow for two dwelling units per acre so the maximum possible density is 34 units. Although the site currently includes a wholesale nursery, the 12.46 acres of agricultural land are not contiguous and the soil quality has a low rating, so development will not be considered to have significant impacts to agricultural resources.

"It is an infill project consistent with the community development," said project consultant Jim Chagala.

The Planning Commission took two votes April 22. The final vote includes conditions which require the planting of 48-inch box trees to screen the development from existing residences; a motion to utilize 36-inch box trees at least 15 feet high was rejected on a 5-2 vote. Both votes also included the condition that the sidewalk at the intersection of South Mission Road and Stage Coach Lane be widened to provide pedestrians additional protection from vehicles which might encroach onto the sidewalk

while making a U-turn.

The original application in July 2006 proposed 22 residential lots, two detention basins, and two biological open space lots. That proposal included lot area averaging, and the smaller size of the nine lots under the half-acre minimum was among the reasons the Fallbrook Community Planning Group recommended denial of the project by an 8-0 vote in August 2006.

The planning group also noted that the Fallbrook Community Plan prohibits excessive grading and steep slopes and that the limited access caused by right turns only to and from South Mission Road would create unsafe driving risks due to the difficulty of making U-turns from South Mission Road.

A revised map with 21 dwelling units, two detention basins, and two open space lots was developed. When the project returned to the planning group in October 2010, the planning group was satisfied with the lot size as well as the stormwater and emergency access issues, but concerns about the grade differential and the traffic impacts led to a 15-0 vote to recommend denial.

The Planning Commission initially considered the Pacifica Estates application in July 2015 and voted 6-0, with David Pallinger absent, to continue to hearing. The continuance to a date which would subsequently be determined rather than a denial allowed for the project to utilize existing technical and biological studies with possible modifications rather than to undertake new studies while also allowing the planning group to provide input on a revised map.

"We thought we could do this better," Norby said.

The initial proposal was for a U-turn lane at the intersection of South Mission Road and Sterling Bridge Road with the removal of approximately 100 feet of the existing raised median to allow for that U-turn capability. A U-turn is currently allowed at the intersection of South Mission Road and Stage Coach Lane approximately 400 feet south of the project entrance and exit.

Community input favored retention of the median. The left turn lane onto Air Park Road 950 feet north of the project road does not have a restriction against a U-turn, and the sight distance for a U-turn of 750 feet exceeds the county standard of 450 feet for a road with the 50 mph speed limit that segment has.

The project includes emergency secondary access to Morro Road through a locked gate. The new private road serving the project which is expected to create an additional 210 average daily trips will include a bridge over Ostrich Farms Creek. Studies for the project analyzed possible access from Stage Coach Lane, Morro Road, and Sterling Bridge Road, but none of those were determined to be viable.

An irrevocable offer of dedication for the frontage along South Mission Road is one of the conditions, although there is no requirement for an acceleration and deceleration lane and such a widening was determined not to be feasible due to the need to move the existing North County Transit District bus stop, encroachment into the Ostrich Creek biological open space easement, and safety issues with the distance between the proposed acceleration lane and the intersection of South Mission Road with Sterling Bridge Road.

The anticipated 210 average daily trips would consist of 105 entering the project and 105 exiting the development. Approximately 40 percent of the existing traffic would continue into Fallbrook, so an estimated 63 daily U-turns at Air Park Road would be made including seven in the two-hour peak morning period and four in the 120-minute peak afternoon period. The estimate is that half of the entering traffic would be from south of Stage Coach Lane and would make a right turn from South Mission Road and another 10 percent would be from Stage Coach Lane, so approximately 42 daily U-turns associated with the project would be made at Stage Coach Lane including two during the peak morning hours and six during the peak afternoon hours.

Although simulations indicated that larger vehicles making U-turns at Stage Coach Lane would have trouble staying on the road, Pallinger, who lives in Bonsall, said, "I have a full-size truck and I know I can make that," he said. "I can make a U-turn if I go

slowly. I can't do it at 20 miles per hour."

The grading includes the road as well as the building pads on each lot. The revised map reduced the total grading from 80,000 to 60,000 cubic yards of balanced cut and fill, and the steepness of the slopes along the north and south property lines was reduced from 2:1 to 3:1. Landscaping was added to improve screening of the development from the view of current residences.

"That landscaping plan will be implemented through the grading permit," Chagala said.

The Fallbrook Community Plan prohibits residential development from unduly disrupting natural terrain. The previous map proposed 21 feet of cut slope and 28 feet of fill slope.

The revised proposal was heard by the Fallbrook Community Planning Group on Feb. 15. The planning group voted 8-7 to recommend approval of that version of the project.

"I think we have in front of you today a far superior project than what we were considering last July," Fallbrook Community Planning Group chair Jim Russell said during the Planning Commission hearing.

"It's well within the village. It also has development all around it," Chagala said. "The lots that are being proposed here are quite consistent with the development that has taken place."

The homes on Summerhill Lane are between 15 and 30 feet lower in elevation than the road on the Pacifica Estates map. The zoning includes a rear yard setback of 40 feet, a "G" height regulation which allows for a maximum of two stories and up to 35 feet in height, a "J" animal designator which permits horsekeeping and for non-commercial activity also allows up to two other large animals and up to 25 small animals, and a "C" building type designator which allows for limited non-residential activity on the ground level or basement.

David Green has lived on Summerhill Lane since 1989. "I will become one of the people dramatically impacted by this project," he said.

Green argued that the project did not comply with general

plan provisions. "It's supposed to enhance established neighborhoods," he said.

Green noted that the Summerhill Lane homes are between 1,000 and 1,500 square feet while the Pacifica Estates homes would exceed 3,000 square feet. "It does not preserve our rural character," he said.

Commissioner Michael Beck noted that Pacifica Estates is an infill project. "This is what we're supposed to be doing to protect the environment," he said.